Day 21

The Grumpy’s are back again!! We got to sleep in this
morning!! We were woken up by Matt Harkey at 6:00 am, and at this point we will
gladly take any extra sleep!

Before leaving the cornfields of Kansas, we stopped by the
home of the Jayhawks, Kansas University. We heard research from Lillian Sumner
about the state of Kansas, Bryce Curtis about Kansas University, Sara McCarthy
about the oil wells of Kansas, and Anderson Crowder about Kansas State
University!After being informed we all
knew we had the knowledge to head up to the bookstore to do some serious shopping.
We arrived right as the bookstore opened, with the cashiers grinning from ear
to ear to see none other than 82 teenagers!!Since the bus had not yet eaten breakfast (a choice of cinnamon,
strawberry, or raspberry rolls), many of us decided to raid the coffee shop as
well. Cam Ray, of course, ran straight to the Apple products in the back of the
store to talk to her friends and family!

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWKS!!

ALWAYS taking advantage of the Apple products in bookstores!

More advantage takers!

After leaving the campus with some Jayhawk swag in hand and
on backs, we crossed into the state of Missouri heading to our next Wal-Mart
stop! YAY WALMART! Many of us were tired of eating peanut butter and jelly
(pretty sure we have been eating out of the same jars of peanut butter for
around 20 days) so many people stopped by the Subway and Wal-Mart deli for
lunch! With lack of sleep and Eastern temperature changes, many of us have
unfortunately caught the common cold.Now for the past few Wal-Mart stops, we have been stocking up on OJ,
tissues, and cold medicine (thanks to Brogan Brown and all other adults for
buying it for us)!

Once we left Wal-Mart, we had a long stretch as we were on
our way to The St. Louis Gateway Arch! Lucas
Bonomo, trying to prevent illness, bought mango flavored orange juice to the
back of the bus…only for it to be spilled all over the back.Lucas had forgotten to screw on the cap,
resulting in Andrew Prachar spilling it on Cody Haigler (have fun bus
cleaners!).Carolina Girl was dropping
off one of our own, Jordan Carlson, at the airport (many of us cried, but at
least he is coming back for the last day!!!).

As arriving in St. Louis, Crispy Bozard shared some fun
facts regarding the skyscrapers in the city, as well as many other cities in
all the states we have passed through (we will tell you later parents, don’t
worry).Once we arrived at our parking
spot at the arch, we found none other than Grant Deaton to greet us!

We all gathered onto the steps of the Mississippi River,
again, only this time we were in Missouri to hear research from our very own
Tanner Hester and Bailee Keller on the city of St. Louis. We also rode a roller coaster with Jon!!!! We had about one hour
to tour the gift shop before it was our time to go up in the arch (hope heights
don’t scare too many).Many people got
refreshments from the vending machines because it was so hot, including St.
Louis native cream soda. Many others went to the fudge shop, including Maddie
Cabe who took on the “buy two get one free deal” (trust us, it was really
good).

Tanner Hester telling us about St. Louis!

Bailee Keller presenting her research on St. Louis!

ROLLER

COASTER!!!

Once the time came to take our ride in the sky, we had to
split up into groups of five (luckily, we were able to pick our groups). To ride in the arch, we all had to squeeze into
these small 4x4 pods! Cue Closter phobia! When inside the arch, we could hear
all the other groups screaming for jokes and singing the whole ride up. It was
SKETCH!The path leading into the pods
was under construction and the entire way up there was one window where we
could all see the supports and mechanics of the arch.

WE MADE IT TO THE TOP!!!!!! The sketchy four-minute ride was
worth it after being able to see the wonderful view, from 630 feet up in the
air! We were able to see almost the entire city of St. Louis on one side, with
the Mississippi River and the state of Illinois on the other. We came back down from the top and headed back
in the muggy heat to the vehicles. We had another stretch to our final destination
of the day, McNair Camp Grounds on Carlyle Lake, Illinois.

Dinner tonight was meatball subs, with a side Caesar salad,
chips, and cookies for dessert!Later
this evening we will have another sing-a-long, two nights in a row (we must
have done something good!) This is the Grumpy
Group signing off, saying we aren’t grumpy, we are just sad we have to leave
our friends in a few days L